Zip through city centre in a bus

BMTC's two new bus services aim to decongest the city and end your parking woes

Zip through city centre in a bus

BMTC's two new bus services aim to decongest the city and end your parkingu00a0 woes

Chief Minister B S Yeddyurappa wants you to leave your car at home and go HOHO after the launch of the Hop-On Hop-Off bus service yesterday.

Charges for both bus services range from Rs 5 to Rs 15. HOHO is touted as India's first inner-city service and promises to take you across the city in 20 minutes. The fleet consists of air-conditioned Volvo buses.

The Big 10 service took off on two arterial roads Hosur Road and HAL Airport Road. The rest will follow in phases.

What's new

The chief minister also inaugurated widened roads, new subways and bus bays in the city. These include:

>>A surface pass at CBI Junction providing signal-free movement to Bangalore International Airport (BIA). Costing Rs 550 lakh, the project will regulate traffic to and from R T Nagar.
>>Upgrading Kaggadaspura Main Road, which connects Old Madras Road and Airport Road, with a five-layer strengthening at a cost of Rs 895 lakh.
>>Strengthening and renovating Bull Temple Road which was completed at a cost Rs 5.13 crore. The road is now 5.94 km.
>>Constructing bus bays costing Rs 42.2 lakh at Nrupatunga Road and widening Race Course Road at a cost of Rs 390.72 lakh.
>>Constructing a pedestrian underpass at Raj Bhavan Road near Basaveshwara Circle, costing Rs 61 lakh.

The Bruhat Bangalore Mahanagar Palike (BBMP) is constructing 100 bus bays in 25 packages, with four bus bays in each package. It is being built at a cost of Rs 568 lakh. Of these, 10 bays are concrete ones and the remaining are asphalt.

The routes

HOHO: There are two lines of service clockwise and anti-clockwise. They will run every five minutes and connect points in the Central Business District, which include M G Road, Commercial Street, Kensington Road, Chinnaswamy Stadium, UB City, Mayo Hall, Hosmat Hospital, Hosur Road and Richmond Circle.

The Big 10: The buses will ply the 10 arterial roads leading out of the city. The frequency will be 10 minutes. The Hosur Road and HAL Airport Road services took off yesterday. More roads will be added once in two or three weeks until the other stretches are covered. They are: Old Madras Road, Bellary Road, Tumkur Road, Magadi Road, Mysore Road, Kanakapura Road, Bannerghatta Road and Sarjapur Road.

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